Cox

Details

Content

The famous English clockmaker Alister Cox is invited by the Emperor of China Qiánlóng to his court to build a series of clocks that can measure the passing of time in happiness, grief and on the brink of death. In the Forbidden City, surrounded by luxury and ceremonial magnificence, Cox and his three companions create the most incredible automata from iron, mercury and sand, beset with jewels. Grieving for his own daughter, Cox dedicates his creations to her, seeking solace in their beauty. But the court is also dominated by fear of violating one of its many rules under pain of death. When Qiánlóng, also known as “Lord of Time”, asks Cox to invent a clock that will represent eternity itself, Cox knows it’s an impossible task: he can neither put himself above the Emperor by finishing his creation nor fail in his attempt to fulfil his master’s wishes. Determined to find a way out, he sets to work on his final masterpiece.

In his characteristic beautiful writing, Christoph Ransmayr describes life in the shadow of one of the most powerful men in history, conjuring up stunning images and details of times and places long lost.

About
Christoph Ransmayr

Christoph Ransmayr was born in Wels, Upper Austria in 1954, and studied philosophy in Vienna, where he lives today, having spent many years in Ireland and travelling. In addition to his novels, Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis, Die letzte Welt, Morbus Kitahara (“The Dog King”), Der fliegende Berg and Atlas eines ängstlichen Mannes, he has also published ten books which play with narrative forms, including Der Weg nach Surabaya, Geständnisse eines Touristen, and most recently Der Wolfsjäger. He has won numerous literary awards for his books, including literary prizes named after Friedrich Hölderlin, Franz Kafka and Bert Brecht, the PremioMondello, the Prix du Meilleur livre étranger and, jointly with Salman Rushdie, the European Union’s Prix Aristeion. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.